TRANSLATION: "BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN"
The Potemkin (above) steams into the harbor.
The sailors (above) watch as a political demonstration on land is thwarted by the Czar's soldiers.
It doesn't look good (above) for the demonstrators.
SAILOR: "Comrades! Wait a minute! There's a baby carriage on the edge of the steps!"
SAILOR: "Merciful Heavens! The soldiers are coming and there's a baby on the edge of the steps!"
SAILOR: "Wait a minute! What am I worried about? Nobody would push a baby down the steps!"
CAPITALIST (on the steps): "Hey, there's a baby! Push it down the steps!"
Baby "Waaaaaaa!!!!!"
SAILOR: (Gasp!)
DEMONSTRATOR: (cry of anguish)
SAILOR: "Man, that was harsh!"
SAILOR: "Well, at least we have this cool lighting. How do you like it? It's all done with a flashlight! "
TRANSLATION: "BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN"
The Potemkin (above) steams into the harbor.
The sailors (above) watch as a political demonstration on land is thwarted by the Czar's soldiers.
It doesn't look good (above) for the demonstrators.
SAILOR: "Comrades! Wait a minute! There's a baby carriage on the edge of the steps!"
SAILOR: "Merciful Heavens! The soldiers are coming and there's a baby on the edge of the steps!"
SAILOR: "Wait a minute! What am I worried about? Nobody would push a baby down the steps!"
CAPITALIST (on the steps): "Hey, there's a baby! Push it down the steps!"
Baby "Waaaaaaa!!!!!"
SAILOR: (Gasp!)
DEMONSTRATOR: (cry of anguish)
SAILOR: "Man, that was harsh!"
SAILOR: "Well, at least we have this cool lighting. How do you like it? It's all done with a flashlight! "
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Yes! Finally! That was that film was missing! After all these years! I feel so much better now Eddie, thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe Capitalist saying "There's a baby, push it down the steps" is priceless.
ReplyDeleteNyuck, nyuck, nyuck! Cool Lighting, flashlight, great stuff, terrific poses.
ReplyDeleteI've yet to see Battleship Potemkin, but I'm aware of the famous baby carriage scene, so I do get the reference.
It's available on Google Video, so I've no excuse. I'll watch it right now.
Google Video and YouTube has a great collection of lost silent classics, for instance, Windsor McKay's Sinking Of The Lusitania. For the truly horrifying, there is also Thomas Edison electrocuting Topsy the Elephant, one of the most watched videos on either Google Video or YouTube. It was one of Edison's top draw films in its day, too, which I suppose is a comment on prurient interests now and then have changed little.
Delightful post, Eddie. Some day, Eisenstein will receive his due as a purveyor of hate and, eventually, an apologist for Stalin.
ReplyDeleteWhat innovation! Just when you think these photo dramas can't get any more ingenius...
ReplyDeleteYou should make a book of these, too, Eddie! I'd pay the tax, no prob.
Great work!
- trevor.
I couldn't help reading all of this in a French accent. I think it was the stripes.
ReplyDeleteI eagerly await the lost "Casablanca" and "The Wizard of Oz" footage!
ReplyDeleteI double-dog dare you to do The Battle on the Ice.
ReplyDelete"Hey, there's a baby! Push it down the steps!"
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
"I've yet to see Battleship Potemkin, but I'm aware of the famous baby carriage scene, so I do get the reference."
ReplyDeleteYeah, me too. That's the scene where Eliot Ness just lets it go and keeps on shooting at Capone's thugs, right?
I am all about Photo 10.
ReplyDeleteEddie is so seriously stupefied at the sight of the baby-pushing.
Lester: Yes, it's very sad to remember that Eisenstein was a Stalinist. I definitely wasn't attempting to endorse his politics when I did this. You wonder how such a creative guy could have fallen for that stuff.
ReplyDeleteEddie Fitzgerald said...
ReplyDeleteYes, it's very sad to remember that Eisenstein was a Stalinist. I definitely wasn't attempting to endorse his politics when I did this. You wonder how such a creative guy could have fallen for that stuff.
On the flip side, there was Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's own cinematic cheerleader. Great forward thinking talent in film-making, lousy ideology.
If only Eisenstein had known that it was capitalists who financed Stalin...
ReplyDeleteIt's a good example of Eisenstein's ideas about editing. By shooting the mother AFTER the baby carriage is set in motion it becomes an act of moral vengeance by the baby-loving czarist troops.
ReplyDelete>>Some day, Eisenstein will receive his due as a purveyor of hate and, eventually, an apologist for Stalin.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell are you talking about? How was Sergei Eisenstein a purveyor of hate? It is the oppressive Tsarist regime that is the enemy in the film Battleship Potemkin, not capitalism (like Eddie suggests). Unless you think it is hateful to denounce the Tsars?
How was Eisenstein an apologist for Stalin? His film October was not like the the Soviet leaders, and they leveled charges of formalism against both Potemkin and October -- forcing Eisenstein to give up his montage editing techniques. His films The General Line, and Bezhin Meadow were disavowed by the Soviet Censors.
Eisenstein even tried to get work in Hollywood in 1928, to no avail.
The guy playing the sailor looks familiar. Have we seen him in any other movies?
ReplyDeleteAh, thanks Eddie. Babies being pushed down stairs is always good for a laugh!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I had to see this film so many times in school! Now I get to act like a real-life snobby film nerd every time it's referenced somewhere, and no one else gets it! YES!